Say Psych: Album Review: Heaters – Fuzz Club Sessions

Heaters who call Grand Rapids, Michigan home, have drawn acclaim from across the globe after rising to prominence in 2014 with their spacey, driving take on West Coast psychedelic rock. Tapping into 60s garage they build their own brand of expansive kinetic energy which swells with cosmic vibes.

During a UK tour earlier this year, they spend their day off at London’s Love Buzz Studios to lay down a live album, which has in turn become the latest in the Fuzz Club Sessions series. Fuzz Club reason that this series of session recordings will take ring some of the best names in psych, rock and roll and strip things down to the absolute fundamentals resulting in a powerful, unkempt product.

The five track session is served up in the raw, analogue recording format used in the first instance and is a no holds barred slab of tripped out psych infused garage rock. Opening with ‘Levitate Thigh’ originally from their EP back in 2014, they waste no time in bursting into jangling guitar riffs, a pounding rhythm section and lazy yet empowered vocals. The track speeds as it progresses and pacey vocals leave you breathless before normal pace is resumed. Another flux in tempo is present to end the track and the intensity of guitar playing has to be applauded as of the highest standard.

Next come four tracks are all versions of tracks from album Holy Water Pool released in 2015 by Beyond Beyond is Beyond Records. The first, ‘Master Splinter’, is another track which boasts musically complex elements, whilst maintaining an upbeat sound to create a surf vibe wholly reminiscent of The 13th Floor Elevators. ‘Dune Ripper’ continues this idea seamlessly combining all the best elements of three musical genres and blurring the boundaries into obscurity. ‘Cap Gun’ makes use of a minor key to convey a different feel to its predecessors without losing any of the lustre. Concluding track ‘Hawaiian Holiday’ is instantly pacey and the absence of vocals allows deeper concentration on the music, a heady cocktail of intense strumming, pounding drum beats and probing bass.

Heaters may be strangers to some, but with a session like that recorded and a lengthy European tour underway, they are sure to garner new support after setting the bar so high.

This series of records is proving to be the next level in terms of standard and it is clear that Fuzz Club have birthed an idea here that will become treasured possessions for the bands and fans alike.